One of the most egregious form of business-interest bias in Spanish-language media occurs when it is deemed necessary to conceal the immigration status of the suspect of a heinous crime. Such is the case with Telemundo blatantly omitting that the recently-arrested killer of a 16-year-old Texas cheerleader was in the country illegally.
WATCH as anchor Octavio Pulido plays hide-the-status while reporting on the arrest of the murder suspect:
OCTAVIO PULIDO: Let's go to another story that also triggers outrage. We go to Texas where authorities announced the arrest of the suspect of murdering a 16-year-old cheerleader in Edna, Texas. Lizbeth Medina was found dead by her mother in the bathtub of her apartment earlier this week.
Rafael Romero, 23, was identified by the Edna, Texas Police Department as the suspect in the murder of 16-year-old Lizbeth Romero. The man was taken into custody Saturday in Schulenburg, located about 75 miles north of Edna, and taken to the Jackson County Jail, that community's police chief confirmed.
Seldom do we get such blatant instances of willful omission, but about halfway through the video you’ll notice an image of the Edna P.D. press release on the arrest of Romero, WHICH NOTES THAT HE IS HERE ILLEGALLY. From the first sentence of the second paragraph of the press release:
With countless hours put into this investigation, we were able to locate an undocumented subject, identified as RAFAEL GOVEA ROMERO in the city of Schulenberg.
In plain English, “undocumented subject” means that the suspected killer was here illegally. The report ran close to two minutes, so there was plenty of time to note that the suspect was not legally in the United States. This information was available to Telemundo, because it was in the sheet they used for their graphic.
There is simply no excuse for hiding this relevant information from their viewers.
What’s the over/under on the suspected killer having illegally crossed the border within the last six months? And what are the odds that this information is already known to Telemundo, too?
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned report as aired on Noticias Telemundo on Sunday, December 10th, 2023:
OCTAVIO PULIDO: Let's go to another story that also triggers outrage. We go to Texas where authorities announced the arrest of the suspect of murdering a 16-year-old cheerleader in Edna, Texas. Lizbeth Medina was found dead by her mother in the bathtub of her apartment earlier this week.
Rafael Romero, 23, was identified by the Edna, Texas Police Department as the suspect in the murder of 16-year-old Lizbeth Romero. The man was taken into custody Saturday in Schulenburg, located about 75 miles north of Edna, and taken to the Jackson County Jail, that community's police chief confirmed. Medina was scheduled to participate with her cheerleading team in the Christmas parade of the small community of (unint), but she never arrived. Her mother found her unconscious in the bathtub of her apartment on Tuesday.
JACQUELINE MEDINA: I was calling her, I was sending her messages and she didn't answer. Which- which was something very strange about her since she always answered me.
PULIDO: Before discovering Romero's whereabouts, police had released photographs of the car and of a person of interest. Now the authorities are investigating the motive for the crime.
MEDINA: I don't know if she suffered, if- if she screamed my name, I don't know anything about that and that's what kills me.
PULIDO: Romero's arrest occurred as classmates and residents of the Edna community held a vigil in Medina's memory Saturday night outside the Jackson County Courthouse.
Well, the team that investigates major violent crimes as part of the state’s Department of Public Safety (DPS) arrested Romero for capital murder, making the suspect eligible for the death penalty if convicted.
